First off, realistically, your getting ready photos should be an organic and authentic representation of what happened on your wedding day. So while it might not be aesthetically pleasing to look at a bunch of crap everywhere, that’s what happened. If you’re someone who wants something a little more than just seeing pictures of you getting ready in a space with loads of coffee cups, pajamas, and snack food — here’s my favorite run down of what you can do.
Ways to Make Your Getting Ready Photos Epic
1. Have fun, and enjoy yourself.
This is honestly the most important thing. Just have fun — enjoy yourself, don’t get caught up in the process of “task doing” that the morning of your wedding can be. Cheers champagne, dance to loud music, belt out your favorite songs, take a pause to look at how hot you are in the mirror. Enjoy your morning with your closest friends and family — once the ceremony starts it’ll be a trickle of hello’s and look how great’s and ugh the ceremony!’s. This is a special, sacred time and your one priority should be enjoying it.
2. Incorporate your closest people into the getting ready process and your getting ready photos.
Whether it’s your dog, your first cousin, your hamster, or your best friend from Kindergarten, who care’s, bring your closest folks together, and have them help you get ready. This is one of the few tangible moments they have left to help you be at your best before heading off down the aisle, and they really want to make to sure you look and feel your best as you go. Let them and encourage them to be a part of your getting ready process. Whether it’s helping you with a jacket or a veil, or shoes, or just snagging you a water.
One other tip I love sharing — have your party people who maybe weren’t able to contribute in different ways to the wedding and wanted to pick out different things for getting ready. Robes, snacks, slippers, and more are great options to have your friends pick out for you.
3. Take breaks during the morning.
Take a short walk, or grab a friend and find a quiet nook. Give yourself breaks during this time and just spend a few minutes soaking in the emotions. These moments — the quiet when you start to really acknowledge and feel all the feelings are those perfect candid moments for beautiful images.
4. Trust your photographer/videographer; they take getting ready photos a lot.
We see things a way that you might not. And we know how to make you look your best. Just trust us to really rock out during this time and let us do our thing. I promise it’ll all look perfect, and you’ll have these incredible portraits. I often tell clients and friends/family please just ignore me. It’s the best way to get those beautiful candid moments — when you’re ignoring the camera and I. Let me rock out, you rock out, and I cannot wait to deliver those gushy-filled images.
5. Put the things you don’t need or want away.
Shove all those shoes and bags that you don’t need in the closet — trust, you’ll probably go into that bag twice the whole morning. When the space is removed of the stuff that you don’t care about, the things you do — the flowers your partner sent, the bottle of champagne you’ve saved for this moment. Those things make up the majority of the “stuff” in the room. You want the stuff with intention, emotions, investments to be the things that pop in your getting ready photos. So get rid of all the crud that you just don’t care about.
6. Be in a large enough space for your getting ready time.
Please don’t cram 8 friends, two parents, 3 hair and makeup artists into a tight space. For one, you’re going to want space to spread out, and two it’s just not fun, haha! Keep in mind that if you have hair and makeup artists that they need “workspace,” and while workspace for your photo/video team is rad, we care more than your friends and family can spread out and have little side chats about how excited they are and when they knew you’d get married to the love of your life.
7. Infuse your love story into the getting ready space.
Did you fall in love over tacos? What about a sports team? Infuse little bits of your relationship into the getting ready space with little details. Whether you bring petals from every rose you’ve given your love, or movie tickets, a Polaroid from your first date — these are the little things that make your getting ready images pop and feel oh so gushy.
